Generations

Sunday morning while in the car with my brothers children (aged 12, 9, and 3), the song “Live and Let Die” came on the radio. I asked the three where the song by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his group Wings originated. The THREE-YEAR OLD quickly answered “Shrek the 3rd.” I was utterly amazed and had totally forgotten. I informed them that I am as old as the song itself to which my precocious 12 year old nephew chimed, “How do you know? Are you sure?” Roger Moore made his debut as 007, James Bond in the film Live and Let Die in 1973. I could not state the exact date of the movie’s release (I was either in diapers or still waiting to be introduced to the world myself).

The Bond film is interesting for various reasons. Like so many others in the series, LALD reflected the world around it at the time of its release. Images of the occult are used throughout much of this James Bond feature. Tarot reading, virginal sacrifices, and supernatural characters (like Baron Samedi) are on display as 007 tracks a mysterious heroin-dealer from the Caribbean to New Orleans. Jane Seymour made her major film debut as Solitaire who (as one may guess) is the fortune-telling mystic that reads tarot cards to see into the future until the suave, debonair secret agent uses a bit of his own magic.

So… like many items of popular culture, a song that was around thirty odd years ago has had a re-emergence of sorts. Funny how a three-year-old can make that clear. Once again, I am humbled… the movie Live and Let Die was released a mere 13 days prior to my birth. I wonder if my parents saw it in the theatre.

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